Dawntrail Doomposting Megathread

[HyperiusUltima]

Did a quick catch-up on the thread. Generally I think we aren’t going to get much else out of Dawntrail aside from the Alliance Raid, North Horn(if they even bother to listen to feedback and give us customizable Freelancer…), Variant Dungeons(with hopefully a more accessible Savage than simply being BiS to be able to do this), and if we’re being optimistic, better dungeons that aren’t EW levels of difficulty as I’ve noticed the trend back towards that starting with the Underkeep.

[Jeeqbit]

As mentioned, where we differ is the timing of the exodus. You place it earlier than my experience.

Well it's varied but I mean over the last year. Some may have done it before 7.0, some right after 7.0 and others before sometime before 7.2.

I'd also suggest that making the proportion of happy online players larger by compelling the less happy ones to quit is a peculiar approach to game design.

I can't rule out that this is their strategy. It is actually some companies' strategy, so they can more narrowly focus on the particular customers they want to and be a more focussed business. The time when that ceases to be a company's strategy is when that approach actually causes their product to fail financially, which of course it sometimes does.

However, it's also possible they intend to try and satisfy all the feedback they get, but that they are just extremely slow at it as history would suggest (ie. addressing feedback a whole expansion later).

Generally I think we aren’t going to get much else out of Dawntrail

They announced it in slides at fanfest. We are still set to get a "new take" on a deep dungeon, a blue mage update, beastmaster, probably another Ultimate and it's unclear if we will get more Chaotic raids. And a number of other things you probably aren't interested in otherwise you would've mentioned them.

[Misutoraru]

Might as well let it out here. People are pretty exhausted with the game currently from raids to content to droughts.

7.0 - Reception was complete and utter crap. People didn't like it for different reasons, mostly the story pacing being bad. Dungeons were nice for a while until we started repeating them.

7.05 - Raids were extremely well received. Casual Content is on the backburner, leaving your MSQ Andy out to dry and your people in the middle with nothing to do if they don't want to jump into Savage. Lack of content all-around for a long time.

7.1 - MSQ is still not good. People still didn't like how Wuk was still there following us around. Big Content Patch, but nothing for Casuals except Alliance Raids. Chaotic is a complete and utter mess. Alliance Raids are well received for the FFXI aesthetic, along with how they were designed. One new dungeon, and that's it. That's the patch. Casuals are still running a drought while raiders are eating with the likes of FRU.

By the time i return from a break it is already 7.1
I have to agree MSQ plot is one of the weakest in all expansion, even SB have batter plot and pacing. I quite like AAC light-heavyweight (normal) both game play and plot. Alliance Raid the game mechanics are fun but for someone who never play FFXI, found the whole setting not very interesting.

7.2 - MSQ returns to form with better reception than even 7.0 and 7.1. New Raids are challenging, and the story for the raid is again extremely well received. Things are going in the right direction, even with the new Trial and dungeon - but personally the dungeon doesn't get a pass due to bosses being rather...simplified like Endwalker's was.

As you mention I think the MSQ plot finally turn to a better direction. Cruiserweight (normal) are quite fun and have a good plot as well.

Cosmic Exploration have some initial hype, but the FATE are repreative for each stages, and general contents are not well polish like getting between each level cap for DoH/DoL is are punishmen (e.g. it is harder for lv 81-89 than a 90 etc). Now it is very quiet and barely anyone doing Mech Ops.

7.25 - Occult Crescent Releases. Reception originally is okay, but once people dig into its systems it is very unfriendly to all players. Phantom Jobs are the only thing worth its salt in Occult Crescent as Marketboard prices crash due to improper loot table balancing of Bronze and Silver Chests, which causes devaluation in Eureka AND Bozja, meaning less people doing the content and essentially removing the future proofing both had for rewards. Forked Tower is a complete f***fest because you have people trying to smash 48 people into a 72-man instance, leading to griefing, toxicity, and hostility towards other players when Ciphers are used. Occult Crescent is also the most silent of Exploration Zones due to how everything is a FATE and CE Grind that is NON-STOP. There are no breaks or time for people to get to FATEs - and even then you've got the balancing of FATEs that is out of whack, causing players to get frustrated and stop doing the content altogether because the Riding Map costs 3000 Silver! Don't even get me started on the drop rates for Job Shards either...

Phantom Job really feel a step backward to older content, losing versatile. If Phantom Job play like limit job that would be great fun but nope just some skills limited by what "job" you pick. The long lasting 30m buff encourage players to level most of the job but given some of the CE design that require a healer or raidwide to death, I personally found it a step backward.

The chest isnt that bad, either some posters here are very lucky or I have the worst draw, so far I have only found 3 mounts, 2 from silver chests and 1 from gold coffer. Never see a mount in bronze, and I have been playing everyday since day 1. It wasn't that rare drop back in Bozja too, it is only players who miss out Eureka or Bozja that struggle to farm those mounts. Those content wasn't dead but certainly not very active prior Occult Crescent release. Occult Crescent might have hurt those contents but SE have put no effort to revive old contents then might just put some old rewards available in newest content.

CE spawn rate is fine. Could always skip CE and do something else. I skip it from time to time when I go coffer hunt or got pot. With this spawn rate, at least when a player join the instant it won't be a long wait. FATE need a proper HP scaling though. FATE is a vicious circle, small groups of players defeat it, so when it spawn again it get low scaling because of previous small group defeating it, it need to change.

Yea, FT is poorly implement in quite a few way. Getting all the players into same instance already an issue last time when my discord party try to do it and we waste so much time we eventually give up. Then the only one set of difficulty. Bozja are much better at this type of contents, cant understand why would take another step back.

The future of Dawntrail and 8.0? Might as well call it Dusktrail because Yoshida's Golden Legacy is a big golden turd with how things are going. We can praise them for the good things they do, but our criticism is ignored when we point out the blatant bad things that are not only bad for the playerbase, but also divide them more and more to the point you have to feed content for two heads instead of one! It doesn't surprise me that they want to sit on the golden goose and let it hatch eggs that smell rotten.

I've played for a long time and held out, but I'm to the point that they need to face the music of their playerbase as loud as they can be and bother to ask the question: "What do you want from us and how can we deliver?" instead of copy pasta the same old formula ad nauseum until the end of time.

Players feedback are most certainly need to get to the developer. However, I dont think FFXIV forum is the right place. Forum only represent a small portion of player bases, I would prefer something that could reach the biggest number of players like in-game survey and questionnaire.

[Jeeqbit]

To show that most players I interact with in the game aren't negative, we got a giant conversation going in Occult (names redacted). 14 out of 16 seemed happy with how things are (11 didn't participate):

Player1: ATMA is a LIE
Player2: I just got one
Player2: from an actual fate
Player3: After 10 years of running the game they should have known better than to add rng grinds, again. A slow grind where you make consistent progress ie Eureka would have been ideal
Player4: LF raise please South Horn ( 31.3  , 28.6 )
Player5: eureka sucks
Player6: womp womp
Player7: I dunno I'm fine with it. You have to do so much for maxing the phantom jobs.
Player5: rng is literally part of every mmo
Player8: yeah all my homies hate eureka
A critical encounter has been spotted!
Player5: u have 4 months to get to places
Player5: get over it
Player9: not all of eureka sucks. just pyros i believe. the one with cassie
Player5: thats my current take
Player2: I'm fine with the Atma grind, and the droprate seems great from CEs tbh
Player10: if it makes you feel better the rng is literally once and then its a tome grind
Player5: yea
Player5: you suffer once then its free ride
Player3: Pagos sucks but the rest of Eureka, on release, was decent
Player11: you either roll a 0 or a 99. the mmo way
Player12: Drop rate is higher than 1% so it could be worse
Player3: See but why suffer like this to begin with
Player5: if you want crap do the 1 000 bunny achievement
Player9: cuz EW was too easy
Player2: a lot of people didn't like endwalker's version
Player14: do you want to just go to an NPC and get your relic weapon instantly?
Player5: you will pray and get no response doing that achievement
Player11: bc if there wasn't rng you'd be complaiing there was nothing to do in the game from zooming through content
Player10: I'm not suffering? I am playing the content and getting it as i do it
Player3: Indeed, which begs the question, why make it rng instead of a decent slow but consistent grind?
Player8: yeah the ew relic was the worst way to do it
Player14: i suggest posting your feedback on the official forums
Player10: Idk dude. Seems like you're on your own here
Player5: they wont read it
Player3: yes because that's gone swimmingly
Player5: lol
Player7: Oh s*** at some point I got the Oracle Soul Shard lol
Player8: that was spencer's favorite because she's nuts
Player5: do these devs even read anything from westerners
Player10: well you'd think after 10 years you'd learn that using shout chat to vent your frustrations won't work, but here we are
Player15: lmao
Player3: They've stopped listening to the JP forums as well, they're quite upset over OC and especially forked tower
Player16: they should make us buy tokens with irl money and roll for a chance to get the wepon
Player17: go to reddit, everyone is nice there
Player9: PAGOS thank you, but yeah rest of eureka was fun
Player16: gatcha ftw
Player19: I just threw up in my mouth a little
Player20: i feel like if you don't enjoy grinding you need to pick a different genre of game
Player3: Not lately, not on thediscussion sub
Player21: no relic step touches arr dungeon atma, not evan close, took me 165 Avs
Player3: who said I don't like grinding? I literally said which grind I prefer ie eureka
Player10: oh god x.x don't remind me
Player12: Lol yeah I feel like the bar is in hell with ARR grind
Player2: I didn't like the RNG in pagos, but the rest of pagos was my favorite one. See, the RNG could be like pagos but it's not
Player3: exactly.
Player9: i loathed the books for atmas for the fate waits
Player5: i just cant believe they made the forked entry system so bad
Player3: In any case they should have known better, and forked tower's method of entry is inexcusable
Player5: they thought lets do BA again but with half the ppl in 1 instance
Player5: xffing
Player3: apparently people have started requesting those of us who do CEs to vacate so their entire groups can get a whole instance
Player3: Genuinely, that could not have been the devs intentions
Player21: lol remimber 400 alex raids?
Player10: sorry guys we're doing the actual content, you're kinda talking to yourselves there
Player14: i feel like you are the STOP HAVING FUN meme guy here
Player9: we call it multitasking
Player3: People are allowed to discuss things, you are not obligated to engage in discussions you don't want to
Player10: I'm a MCH, I have a billion buttons to press
Player5: the correct term is krillion
Player11: it went over their head
Player6: you can say stupid things if you want
Player3: in any case I'm not alone in my opinions, so I'm content with that
Player19: I am a DNC, you merely adopted the RNG, I was born in it
Player9: i mean we could be like limsa in this, just afk for 3 hours beesknees and RP*
Player3: You'd also think that the raid would have better rewards, like the airship or fancy ffv gear but nope
Player11: the raid gives the same rewards every field op has. no one is surprised
Player6: you know im starting to think you dont like the game
Player3: the kind of effort it takes to clear demands something akin to the rewards chaotic had, tbh
Player5: this zone doesnt have that many problems
Player5: it only has the forked entry issue
Player3: People can criticize the things the like, productively, especially when they give examples as to how they could be better
Player9: chaotic had elitesets tho
Player3: Chaotic isn't a hard fight, but the entry method was another time waster
Player16: prob the first zone  not to bad
Player9: day 2 of chaotic had pfs saying "dont join unless you cleared 10 times"
Player11: you're right and you should say it louder for the people in the back
Player16: castrum when though
Player14: does anyone else hate it when people come into an area and just complain nonstop? i feel like they could be doing much better things with their time. i'm just giving constructive feedback here btw
Player5: its gonna be goated in a few patch with a krillion extra phantom yobs
Player5: cant wait to have mastery 25 with 50 % dmg
Player11: forked should've been a queue and this zone should've had a duty to tie up the story. in this ted talk i will--
Player3: People when others are social in an mmorpg :O
Player5: add the degenerate preprep and we are gonna be hitting 53821 krillion dmg
Player5: gonna be goated
Player10: there's social and there's being a whine. Guess which you are
Player3: We already have large instance queue systems they could have used
Player21: woo anotherAetherspun Gold in a bronze, 1 more and im done
Player2: I don't mind, if it's genuinely social
Player5: maybe they change it in the future who knows
Player10: grats!
Player2: has been fine, really
Player3: I'd have actually tried the raid if it weren't such a mess to get into even but I'm not jumping through that many hoops, at that point I'd be rewarding the dev's bad behavior
Player14: i'm starting to worry that you are actually getting off on this
Player9: heres my take on this area. its current content, we have several months to play with this, max every job and get your atmas, and gear for this place. it would be different if we had more beast/society quests, this, and more fishing, and another restoration
Player9: on top of this
Player5: oh frick i forgot about big feeshing
Player2: basically that, we have ages
Player5: i came back recently and i didnt get my 7.2 ones
Player2: can just do 1 hour chill a week with how long we have if you want :p
Player5: instruction unclear did 14-16-12hr on first weekend
Player4: finally made it spawn
Player23: okay yeah anyway, whats your favorite enemy in the game based on how you think it would taste?
Player3: The thing is though, in between now and 7.55 there should be more to do than just...this one zone. The deep dungeon crowd isnt even looking forward to the new one after EO and no one cares about criterion/limited jobs to any great extent anymore
Player10: gl on Ranger. Took me forever
Player11: dude there is gonna be more content released don't doom post
Player24: criterion is the best content in the game
Player5: didnt zadsnore come out in 7.55
Player9: i literally do this plas for like 2-3 hours then go somewhere else
Player12: I can't believe this is the last content patch forever until the next expansion
Player3: "doom posting" lol
Player12: its been real
Player5: and had DALRIADA with the best boss music ever with the diablo armament
Player14: i can't believe they are shutting down the servers after this instance is over
Player5: on god fr fr
Player19: time for Louisoix to do his thing again
Player11: you're complaining, crying, and now acting like this occult zone is the ONLY THING happening for the game till 7.55
Player12: Bahamut... 2!
Player14: i can't believe i have to do difficult dungeon mechanics to get a reward
Player3: dalriada was fun, loved the bozjan ivalice themed gear rewards
Player10: they're gonna drop another meteor and reset the servers. Phantom jobs are just a test for the new mmo
Player14: i can't believe i have to do content in order to get a relic weapon
Player3: if only
Player11: "oh nooo what will i do till 7.55" other content in the game
Player5: achievement hunting and you never run out
Player5: in fact you have too much
Player3: Mhmm same arguments we heard in EW
Player6: achiements should be easier
Player9: YOSHI P I DUN LIKE EW RELIC MAKE IT HARDER PLEASE *DT patch drops* no not like that
Player12: [crystal DC voice] time to start your RP disco house, the only end game content
Player14: [he] just teleported away from the CE with 3 seconds to spare lmao
Player5: he done famalam
Player27: 2 spots for gold farm
Player10: And nothing of value was lost
Player14: he was on the verge of actually doing content
Player6: poor thing
Player11: i wonder if he went back to eureka

[Jeeqbit]

Summary of who was happy:

Player1 = Unhappy
Player2 = Happy
Player3 = Somewhat Unhappy?
Player4 = Wasn't participating
Player5 = Happy
Player6 = Happy
Player7 = Happy
Player8 = Not fond of Eureka nor Endwalker. No other opinion expressed
Player9 = Happy
Player10 = Happy
Player11 = Happy
Player12 = Seems happy "it could be worse"
Player13 = Wasn't participating
Player14 = Happy
Player15 = Unclear
Player16 = Seemed happy, was sarcastic about the criticism
Player17 = Sarcastic
Player18 = Wasn't participating
Player19 = Unclear
Player20 = Happy
Player21 = Happy
Player22 = Wasn't participating
Player23 = Wasn't participating
Player24 = Unclear
Player25 = Wasn't participating
Player26 = Wasn't participating
Player27 = Wasn't participating

[Fawkes]

I wouldn't characterize any of that as happy.

[Jeeqbit]

I wouldn't characterize any of that as happy.

My point is they were defending the game. It's perhaps hard to read it all after the fact but I searched for the names one by one and specifically only 2 expressed any negative sentiment whatsoever. Everyone else was saying things like "grinds are part of MMOs", "it's not as bad as ARR", "stop complaining and doomposting", "there's nothing wrong with this zone", "we're busy doing actual content instead of complaining" (as in a CE) etc. Some were sarcastic towards the negativity. Others were just sarcastic and didn't take a side. If you interpret it different then that's odd really.

[Mawlzy]

To show that most players I interact with in the game aren't negative, we got a giant conversation going in Occult (names redacted). 14 out of 16 seemed happy with how things are (11 didn't participate)

You really are an interesting character. If you play poker and wish to get better, please track me down in-game. Within the next month, I'm leaving.

I have never seen that kind of interaction anywhere in 14, and suspect you are some kind of good-vibe magnet. Which in an increasingly-depressing world is to be commended.

Your happiness summary had me absolutely howling.

[Carin-Eri]

You really are an interesting character. If you play poker and wish to get better, please track me down in-game. Within the next month, I'm leaving.

I have never seen that kind of interaction anywhere in 14, and suspect you are some kind of good-vibe magnet. Which in an increasingly-depressing world is to be commended.

Your happiness summary had me absolutely howling.

I do wish you wouldn't leave

[Mawlzy]

I do wish you wouldn't leave

I appreciate that. Unfortunately disinterest with Dawntrail left me susceptible to seduction by my spaceships.

Warp drive... active.